10,000 Years from Now
May 3rd, 2016
When you were in school, you took a lot of tests. If your test results looked like mine, you had red check marks beside some of your answers … that is, the ones that were wrong.
I do not ever remember getting back a test from the teacher, looking it over, and thinking, “I’m really glad I answered this one right, and this one right, and this one right ….” No, what I did was look at all the red on the page and think, “I wish I hadn’t answered this one wrong, and this one wrong, and this one wrong ….” Is that what you did? Did you focus your attention on all the red?
Some of us go through life doing that. We tend to focus on those parts of our past that have “red check marks” beside them. “I messed up here … and here … and here.” If that is our practice … to give the bad choices of our past the permission to pull us under … life becomes little more than a broken record of regrets. Without realizing it, we are allowing the choices of our yesterdays to sour our today … and our tomorrows.
It is an oppressive thing to go through life playing over and over in our minds the things we wish we had not done or the things we wish we had. So, let’s take some time to do just the opposite. Sometime soon, sit down and make a list that begins with these words:
I am really glad that I ______.
… then list as many things as you can possibly remember that you are glad you did. We all need to take some time to consider the things in our past that have “green check marks” by them. I believe you will find great satisfaction in this little exercise.
There is another list I would encourage you to think through, a list of the wise choices you are making right now. But let’s not begin with these words:
At the end of my life, I am going to be really glad that I _________.
No, let’s think beyond the next few years. Instead, let’s begin with these words:
10,000 years from now, I am going to be really glad that I _______.
“When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,” what choices are we making right now that we are going to be really glad we made? Certainly, the only answers that can be on that list are the choices being made with eternity in mind:
What am I doing with the time … and the abilities … and the material goods … and the strength … and the opportunities that Christ has entrusted into my care to strengthen His Church to the glory of His Name?
If the focus of our lives is on everything this world has to offer, we may feel in sync with everyone else out there – for now. But in the long run, we are piling up a whole lot of red check marks in our lives (i.e., a whole lot of loss). And when it is time to bow before the Judgment Seat of Christ, we will have forgotten all about being in sync with the Jones’s.
But if we go through this life with an eternal perspective … if we live – right now – for the King over all kings and Lord over all lords … if we give ourselves to the cause of His eternal kingdom,
we are going to be really glad we did that throughout the Ages to Come.
So, what are you going to be really glad you did this week … 10,000 years from now?
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